The Republic of East Florida (Large Print Edition): Culture, Faith, and Lore

The Floridian Republic Florida's Golden Age (LARGE PRINT EDITION)

Founded by the British, the Southern colony of East Florida was built on faith, family, and freedom. Following the British withdrawal in 1783, East Florida had become a land of oppression and corruption. Spain banned all religions other than their own rigid and clericalist brand of Catholicism and propagated the myth that entering a Protestant place of worship automatically resulted in eternal damnation. Bribery bent the rules for some, but many people suffered. By 1812, the Floridian Revolution was on! The people of East Florida would unite against the Spanish Empire and elect John Houstoun McIntosh as the President of the Republic of Florida. The Republic of Florida, also called the Republic of East Florida, would be aided by many refugee families living in Georgia after the failed East Florida Rebellion of 1795. After liberating Amelia Island, the republic would establish Florida's first constitution, legislature, and judiciary. After much prayer, Saint Brigid was chosen as the heavenly protector and patron saint of Florida. This fact-based book details the culture, faith, and lore of the Floridians and their revolution which lasted from 1812 to 1819.

Bran M.P. Brooks, DPM, MPH, FACPM, FASPS, is a Catholic, husband, father, and seventh-generation Native Floridian (Ethnic Floridian). Dr. Brooks is a Dartmouth-educated historian, board-certified podiatric surgeon-scientist, and the current Chief of Podiatry at a large health care system in the southeastern United States. Dr. Brooks has authored dozens of peer-reviewed publications, lectured to thousands of people across ten states, and won numerous awards for his research. His hundreds of awards from Catholic schools in Florida are only rivaled by his siblings, Drs. Brad M. Brooks, DO (Psychiatrist and Addictionologist), and Brady M. Brooks, DO (Diagnostic Radiologist). Of note, Dr. Brooks remains the youngest recipient (age 29) of the prestigious Distinguished Alumnus Award from Saint Leo University for his work as a Native Floridian cultural preservationist, skill as a surgeon, pioneering the study of Florida's Independent period, and leadership as a knight in promoting eucharistic adoration and the pro-life movement. Dr. Brooks is excited to share his people's unique cultural history and aims to reduce the bias and discrimination that has distorted the lens from which this period of history has been viewed due to the anti-Catholic policies and rhetoric of Governor Sidney Catts.